Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to say yes, but I do want to talk to the Housing Corporation because we've just consolidated our programs and I'm not sure exactly what their plans are. But the intention is there, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just not too long ago the community of Lutselk'e had their new arena completed and they had their grand opening, which unfortunately the Commissioner, the Premier, and the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, myself included and other dignitaries were weathered out of the community, so we were unable to attend the opening ceremonies, which was quite unfortunate. I just wanted to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs with regards to the purchase of a Zamboni for the arena. I know it's not in the government's responsibility to pay for a Zamboni for any of these arena projects in the communities and I just want to ask the Minister if he will fully support and endorse the initiative by the First Nations band to get the industry perhaps, mining and maybe government, federal government, territorial government, to all contribute so that the community can maybe get a Zamboni there by this summer's barge? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as part of our New Deal, we've made an allocation to the communities directly so that they can design and implement their own capital program. We're working with the communities to develop a sustainable, long-term plan that includes capital energy and a number of different things. We also have committed, as part of that

initiative, to support communities in terms of working, to leverage other dollars. We have some staff that can work with the community and we'd certainly commit to working and helping them to identify potential companies or organizations that may be able to contribute and maybe use some of their own resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to thank the Minister for offering the assistance of, I guess, the Municipal and Community Affairs staff to develop a comprehensive capital plan for all the communities of the NWT. I know there's going to really be a lot of challenges there just to get the communities to comply and stick to the plan. I know there's been some concerns out there that a lot of communities seem to put their capital on the back burner and put other things on the forefront with community initiatives and use up capital dollars for different programs.

I just want to ask the Minister if, I think just one Member has stated out, you know, we had four charters going in and I'm sure the cost of those charters probably would have paid for a Zamboni in itself, but if he can endorse and offer a letter of support to the First Nations community of Lutselk'e that the Municipal and Community Affairs is fully supportive of the initiative to get industry onside and they would endorse any kind of a way of raising money in order to get the Zamboni on the barge for this summer, because you need six months to get it on order otherwise it's going to be another year before they can get one in there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if I agree that three or four charters is equivalent to a Zamboni. I think a Zamboni is around $100,000. I don't believe four charters are equal to that. However, Mr. Speaker, we will commit to the community in writing, if the Member so wishes, that we will work with them, we'll help them develop a process, outline a process, and also if they need some assistance in identifying funding sources, organizations, we certainly can help with that, Mr. Speaker. We don't have a problem. It is our commitment that we will work with the communities to help them lever outside dollars or outside revenues or tools or whatever is required, that we have some staff people that are ready and willing to do that. So we'll commit to that, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister responsible for seniors in the Northwest Territories. I've asked the Minister if he would look at forming a committee that would look at all the needs of the seniors that are offered by this government in terms of forming a standard level of services for communities. We talked about the housing, about the medical, and we talked about the income support. Would there be an initiative for that by the Minister to initiate in the North? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past year and a half this government has embarked on a fairly significant process of discussing the income security review, and that has lead to extensive consultations with seniors across the Territories in all regions. What I would hope to do is to be able to come forward to propose a solution to the changes that we're looking at for income security and then we'll review whether or not we need to have an ongoing committee to provide us with ongoing advice after we've been able to respond to this recent consultation.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. I do support the Minister on this initiative and it's looking at income support security programs. There is the NWT Seniors' Society. I guess I'm asking if it would go beyond the income security programs in terms of the housing programs. A colleague of mine had some discussions with the Minister of Housing Corporation in terms of the standard policy for seniors in terms of their housing design and medical services and other issues that seniors need to look at. Would the Minister look at going beyond the scope of this income support? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The consultation process actually included all 17 subsidy programs that this government has. So it went beyond income support. So when I say income security, I'm referring to the broad spectrum, not just the income support programs. So what I would hope we could do is have some discussion about where we're going with income security before we start setting up other committees to review the process. Once we have the new guidelines in place and new outline for where we hope to be headed, that might be appropriate at that point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. I look forward to this, Mr. Speaker, and I look forward to looking at the government making a real strong recommendation by the support of the seniors to have a department just solely for the

seniors of the Northwest Territories, and have a strong Minister that would fight for the seniors to keep them well in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I didn't hear a question there. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice. The Prime Minister has announced a plan to change, somewhat dramatically, how judges are re-appointed and restructure committees to be able to greater influence the outcomes so they can get judges that are more sympathetic to the government's agenda, law and order agenda, and such.

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They are going to minimize the use of the judiciary, they want to increase the use of Conservative Party faithful on the committees. I'd like to ask the Minister, since this is a relatively new issue that's only come up since last week that I've become aware of it, whether the Minister would commit to review this particular change with his Cabinet colleagues and be able to report back to this House before the rise of the House next week when we take a break, to give us an indication of do they have the same concern that's being voiced by judges, lawyers and people at large across this country on this change? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't see a dramatic change in the appointment process. I think we know that the past federal government looked for appointees that were sympathetic to their philosophical views. I think this federal government will do the same. I think future federal governments will do the same. I don't think there's a great departure here from the way things have been run in the past in that respect. Thank you.